


No Time for Farewells

by HasteinAurelius



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Angst, Angst and Tragedy, Grief/Mourning, Pain, Yams you madlad, chapter 138
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 03:13:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29894745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HasteinAurelius/pseuds/HasteinAurelius
Summary: Just a little something I felt compelled to write after reading chapter 138. Warning, spoilers and pain lie ahead. Various characters reflect on a certain shocking development.
Relationships: Scattered debris from various sunken ships
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	No Time for Farewells

**Author's Note:**

> As always, all characters, etc belong to Ishiyama, who hurts his readers to collect tears for the sauna he'll be opening after publishing the final chapter.

“Mikasa! Pieck! Get on Falco!” Levi’s heart sank further with every word he forced out. Thanks to his family’s abilities, he knew exactly what to do, and he fucking hated it. Levi took one last look at the two brats who he had been a friend, mentor, and sometimes father figure to for the past five years, then turned his attention to the three he could keep alive, at least for a little longer.

He knew well that there would be time to mourn later. The people he cared about always died around him and he always had more time than he wanted to mourn them. “We’re getting out of here!” he ordered as he led the way to the young shifter. _Sorry, Armin,_ he thought, _your girl’s on her own._ It had taken a lot of willpower to not say anything to her on the long journey, for Armin’s sake. He certainly wasn’t going to risk everyone else to chase after that shithead after she wandered off.

* * *

“Mom? Dad?” Falco struggled to keep his face and voice calm as the meaning behind the orders he heard Mr. Levi shouting sank in. _At least they don’t know about the gas. They won’t be scared at the end if I don’t tell them what’s about to happen..._ “I love you both, but you have to let go now. I still have fighting to do. Please.” He sadly watched them climb down his flank, then turned and locked eyes with Gabi. _I’m sorry, Gabi. We were supposed to marry and spend the next 13 years together… Mr. Braun, I couldn’t keep my promise._

Falco had always thought heartbreak was a metaphor, but now felt very much as if something was ripping apart inside his chest, far different from the other types of pain he’d experienced in his short life. He waved once, then ducked back into the nape so nobody would see him wiping away tears. _Mom, Dad, Gabi, Miss Annie, Mr. Jean, Mr. Connie, goodbye._ “Go!” Mr. Levi shouted and Falco leapt into the air. He heard Miss Finger weeping for her father and he couldn’t hold it in any longer, screaming out his grief and rage both inside his nape and from his titan’s mouth. _It’s just not fair, we saved them and now they’re dying. Gabi…_

* * *

“Ackermans and shifters are an exception. You should know what to do.” Pieck’s eyes widened at Levi’s words. She did know, having seen a similar gas in action more than once. _No, I already mourned Dad once, now I’ll have to do it again?_ Pieck wondered, thinking back to when she had found a secluded corner of the Azumibito ship to quietly mourn for her father and Liberio. “Hurry!”

“Go.” Jean insisted, giving her a firm push towards Falco. _He doesn’t deserve this either,_ she thought, remembering the last time she felt that hand, when he had stumbled across her weeping in the cargo hold and done his best to comfort his former enemy. _And I won’t even get the chance to pay back that favor like I promised and buy you dinner._ Mikasa took the exhausted shifter by the arm and dragged her along faster. _How is that damn worm doing this, it took Marley chemists years to develop that gas!?_ She looked back after climbing on Falco’s back and couldn’t help but cry out for her father.

They lifted into the air and the tears began to fall. Then the flashes of multiple transformations went off and her eyes hardened with determination. “Falco, drop me off with Reiner. I’ll do more good fighting the worm.”

* * *

“I hope they survive,” Connie remarked as they watched Falco take off. “So this is the end.” _And it’s just my luck, it’s the way I feared most, going through what Mom went through. I hope they put me down fast and I can see Sasha and all the rest again._ Connie wrapped an arm around Jean’s shoulders and held tight, taking some comfort when the man who had been like a brother to him since the destruction of Ragako returned the gesture. _We’ll face it together, at least, on our feet._

Jean nodded. “For us.” _I never even had the guts to tell Mikasa how I felt. I could yell it now, but she doesn’t need the distraction. Hell, I even hid it so well the past few years that another girl asked me out. Seems kinda cheap to get out of that awkward situation by dying, but I hope they both find happiness somewhere. So many of our friends have died around us since Trost, guess it’s finally our turn._ “We have to trust the rest to the living, that’s the Survey Corps way.” _If there is an afterlife, that suicidal blockhead has a lot of explaining to do when we meet again._

“Jean, remember during our graduation?”

“Yeah” _I wonder if Marco can see us?_

“We ended up saving the world, because of you…” _I’d have died years ago without him._ Jean opened his mouth, intending to say how they couldn’t have done it without his best friend Connie, when he felt it begin. Unable to speak, he squeezed his beloved friend tighter in his last moment.

* * *

 _That can’t be right. It just can’t be happening like this,_ Gabi thought, stunned, as she held to her parents and aunt while numbly watching Pieck and the two Ackermans scramble onto Falco’s back. _No, I can’t leave Falco alone like this, it’s not right,_ she thought as she locked eyes with him. He waved, and she lifted her arm to wave back as he ducked down into the nape.

 _I never even had a chance to apologize for everything I put him through,_ she thought as he lifted off. _At least he knows I like him too, and we had that one kiss on the boat before he transformed. But I wish we’d had time for another. Or maybe three, three kisses would’ve been nice._ Falco screamed, and Gabi finally teared up when she heard the pain in his voice. _Oh, Falco, please stay alive. Be strong. Miss Pieck, please look after my Falco._

* * *

“Dad?” Annie had given up hope of ever seeing her father again back in Stohess, when Mikasa had cut her off of the wall, but there he was. In all her hellish years trapped inside the crystal, blind and numb, she hadn’t even dared dream of this moment, a reunion with the first of the three people that she believed gave a damn about her.

 _Oh, Dad, I have so much to tell you. And I can introduce you to Armin when he gets here. There’s even enough time in my term I might be able to give you a grandchild to hold. Wouldn’t you love that? But no making this one into a killer like me and Armin._ The two slowly walked towards each other, as if afraid moving too fast would cause them to wake from a dream. _What’s with this weird smoke?_ Annie wondered as they drew nearer. She was only two steps away from wrapping her arms around her father when the blast threw her backwards.

* * *

Reiner looked up in shock as titans tumbled from the mesa. “No way,” he breathed, shocked. _That smoke, it can’t be. Mom, Gabi, Jean, Connie, there’s no way they’re titans. I have to fight my family, friends, and my neighbors from the internment zone now? Eren, you absolute bastard._ As he approached, he watched the titans form up around the worm. “This fucker summoned an army. Don’t you dare… You’re not getting past me!” he snarled, determined. His heart sank as he recognized the faces of family and friends on titans, confirming his fears, and he screamed as he crashed into the worm.

* * *

“How is this even possible… It isn’t in contact with the founding titan anymore?” Armin wondered as he saw the army of titans plummet towards the worm. “Damnit…” he growled when he noted only three figures on Falco’s back and hoped desperately that one was Annie. “Jean, Connie… So much for being precious to Eren. Long happy lives? Like hell! Are you going to try killing Mikasa and I next? You really love this hell, huh, Eren!?” Armin’s eyes narrowed as he recognized the titan body Eren had created as a copy of his own titan. _Please survive, Annie, we can finish this._ “Alright,” he announced as he prepared to crash into Eren, “I’ll follow you till the end!”

* * *

“Jean, Connie!” Mikasa gasped out as she recognized their faces in the mob of titans Pieck was leaping towards. “This is too cruel…”

“Hold it together,” Levi instructed. “Just a little longer and we can mourn them.”

 _Eren, why would you do this?_ Mikasa wondered. _Did you really mean what you said? Do you hate them too? And I never could tell you I love you. Do you really hate me?_ Stabbing pain shot through her head and she was vaguely aware of Levi yelling for her to get her shit together. _Now? What a horrible time for one of my headaches. I can’t take this anymore… I want to go back home._

Mikasa blinked, and experienced a brief vision of what might have happened if she’d confessed her feelings to Eren that night in Marley and they’d run away together. This dream born of desperate denial ended horribly, the same way as the one she’d had back in Trost when she was out of gas and thought Eren was dead. This similarity was not lost on Mikasa as she steeled herself for what she had to do. Not knowing how she would live with herself afterwards, she pulled her scarf from her shirt and wrapped it around her neck one last time. “Eren is in the mouth.” _Why do I know that?_ “I’ll kill him… Help me do it.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you haven't seen it yet, that's a reference to Mikasa's OVA, Lost in the Cruel World, in her part. Like all the OVAs, it's definitely worth watching. Or reading, since the same story is in the Lost Girls spinoff manga.


End file.
